Wednesday, August 27, 2014

thoughts:i love ender's game, and this is its companion text. i *really* doubted that it would be as good. bean, the main character, can come across as a bit whiny, but he is (dare i say it) a more sympathetic character than ender. even as he tries to ignore/hate/avoid ender while constantly being compared to him, bean grows to love and respect his future commander.always the smartest in the room and ahead of everyone else, bean figures out the secret of the ansible and does the right thing for his team. ender may be the hero, but bean deserves just as much credit. maybe even more given his unusual birth and genetic history.while i hesitate to proclaim that this text is better than ender's game, i do think it surpasses it in engaging audience sympathies and leaving the reader satisfied at the end. if not better, it is certainly as good.mr. card, i may despise your politics, but i love your art. please keep writing.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

book 36 of 60:bibliography and the sociology of texts by d.f. mckenzie

date started: 8.7.14

date completed: 8.11.14

thoughts:this book was a total mindfuck. seriously. BLEW. MY. MIND.i have read a lot of bibliographical studies books in my life, and with that prior knowledge i have decided that this guy is the macdaddy of bib. much of the material in this book was written in 1986, but mckenzie is able to foresee technological changes to text that hadn't even been conceived of yet. much like bradbury, he seems to *know* what's coming. what an incredible mind.

because of this text, i have a plan to merge two major research projects that i have been frustrated with for some time AND some excellent source material to back up my claims.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

i've been on vacation since the beginning of july, which apparently means no thinking or writing. i have been reading though, so here's the lowdown:

book 31 of 60:one more thing by b.j. novak

date started: 7.3.14

date completed: around 7.12.14

thoughts:

i appreciated a lot of the stories in this book. they were humorous and literally made me laugh out loud, which is quite a feat.

some stories were just ok, as is usually the case with a collection. all in all, i enjoyed this one.

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book 32 of 60: the sea of monsters by rick riordan

date started: 7.13.14

date completed: around 7.15.14

thoughts:not quite as fun as the first one, but they are quick, entertaining, and it's fun to guess who's who in the ancient greek world.

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book 33 of 60:to kill a mockingbird by harper lee

date started: 7.16.14

date completed: around 7.21.14

thoughts:this is another re-read. i have read this text every year since high school and intend on continuing to do so. there's something about july that just screams for TKAM--maybe it's the description of the heat in maycomb...maybe it's that this is an incredible piece of writing that yearns to be read wholly and all at once.

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book 34 of 60:fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury

date started: 7.23.14

date completed: around 7.25.14

thoughts:this is another re-read. i have read this text every year since middle school and intend on continuing to do so. my love of bradbury is rather apparent to all who know me or read this blog regularly (i mean, i named my dog after a character in it!), so i needn't say a lot here other than this text is so rich that i find something new every time i read it. amazing.probable next read: finishing the goldfinch by donna tartt (which might happen one day...we'll see...)